David Eggert was on holiday with his wife and two children on the Greek island of Kos when he claims his kids were left lying on the concrete floor by the pool due to sunbed hoggers
David Eggert, 48, sued his holiday tour operator after losing out on sunbeds for his family (Image: Instagram/david_egtofficial)
A German dad who took legal action after a battle at a five-star hotel for a sunbed has hit out at tourists who claimed the loungers at dawn before vanishing for hours after he took legal action.
David Eggert, 48, sued his holiday tour operator after he claimed his children were left lying on concrete by the pool after every one of the 400 sunbeds at the luxury Greek island resort had been reserved by hotel guests claiming their spots with towels. The pilot paid more than £6,200 to take his wife and two children on holiday to Kos in 2024, and this month he won £770 after successfully bringing legal action against the travel company.
David, from Dusseldorf, has now spoken out about what happened, claiming that guests at the five-star Grecotel Kos Imperial resort would leave towels on loungers early in the morning before heading back to bed or into town – despite signs warning against the practice.
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Speaking to the Daily Mail, he said he would get up early every morning to try and nab a spot by the pool during his family’s ten-night stay, but was never successful. Instead, he claimed his kids were left with no choice but to lie on the concrete floor as sunbeds sat unused for hours.
“It was a big hotel, very fancy, with about 400 loungers. And all 400 loungers had towels on them,” he said. “The people were not actually using the loungers, and the guests went into town or went back to bed and slept. Some stayed away until midday. Then they came back later, and you still could not get a lounger. And that was the main problem. There were signs everywhere in German and English saying it was forbidden to reserve loungers.”
David’s decision to take legal action grabbed attention as resorts across Europe battle with long-running ‘towel-wars’ at hotels which sees guests heading down to the pool early in the morning to secure the best spots by leaving towels before breakfast. David said he made the decision to take legal action because the hotel and tour operator did not take action against holidaymakers who flaunted the rules against the practice and ignored complaints he then made.
Judges in Hanover decided in his favour, ordering the tour operator to refund him £851.75. But in a shocking twist, David has admitted he has joined in with the controversial practice on previous holidays, saying that parents often felt they had no other choice.
“With two children, you really only have two choices: reserve your lounger with a towel or have no lounger at all. Full stop. That’s it. You either join in or you say: ‘Okay, I’m sensible, this is stupid, I won’t do it.’ And okay – that is fine, but then of course you do not get your lounger,” he said.
“But when you have two children and you need to watch them while they are swimming, you need to be near the water and not somewhere far away. You have to keep an eye on them. So I can understand anyone who does this, even if it is something which I know many Brits may find a bit weird – because the reality is: if I do not do it, I do not get a lounger.”
He added that he does not see the issue as a Brit versus German tourist cliche, but an issue faced by families across Europe. He compared it to football rivalry “when each side blames things on the other” adding that it’s “tradition”‘, but a “funny tradition between friends”.
It is thought that this is the first time a case of the highly controverisal poolside practice has ended up in court, with judges ruling that holidaymakers should not be expected to engage in poolside battles for beds by removing other guests’ towels from the sun loungers. The court said it was up to the tour operator to step in and stop the mad scramble before things escalated.
The court concluded that tour operators must make sure hotels have a fair system in place with a balance between the number of sunbeds and guests. David, a former Air Berlin pilot, issued a warning about his victory, saying his case could open the gates for travel companies to be hit with millions of pounds in claims unless they clamp down on the ‘dawn dash’.
He warned that it is a “problem in every hotel” and that with his story spreading, others could be inspired to take action themselves with the busy summer holiday season approaching. He said that while his payout wasn’t huge, if large numbers of tourists start suing companies “the costs will run into the millions” which then “becomes enormous financial damage”.
There is no specific law banning the tactic of racing down to claim a lounger before breakfast, but most resorts do make it clear with signs and notices that it is frowned upon. Many hotels warn guests that if they leave towels on empty loungers they could be removed after 30 to 60 minutes. But the wording of the notices is often vague which can lead to rows erupting between tourists.
TUI Deutschland had already paid David €350 (£302.50) in compensation before his case reached the courts. Court documents read: “The plaintiff claims that every day during the vacation, all sun loungers at the hotel’s pool area were reserved with towels from 6am. The plaintiff and his family, who did not adopt this reservation practice, were therefore unable to obtain a lounger by the pool for relaxation and sunbathing.”
Dr Patrick Skeries, of Hanover District Court, said the key question in David’s case was whether or not tour operators could stand by as guests reserved loungers, or whether they had a duty to step in. He said: “The court ruled that the tour operator is obliged to intervene. Otherwise, the price of the trip may be reduced because the travel service is defective.”
